Q: How do I make IOS 6 keep wifi on when iPod is sleeping?

I have had the exact same problem ever since I first updated my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 to iOS 6. When I received my iPhone 5 in the mail two days later, it did the exact same thing - and still does at this very moment.

This has been very frustrating as alerts over wifi are essential for the way I use the apple devices. In fact, iMessage and FaceTime calls to our wifi-only iPad 2 are the primary ways my wife and I communicate throughout the day. Well, neither of us get any when we need to since both the iPhone 5 (I try to keep data off during the day) and the iPad 2 disconnect from wifi when sleeping.

Apple needs to find a fix for this right away. It might be something with our campus network settings (we live on a university campus in apartments), but everything worked fine on the same wifi network with iOS 2, 3, 4, and 5. If there's a way to take the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 back to iOS 5, I would be up for that at this point. (Yes, I know that the iPhone 5 never had iOS 5.)

Same problem. I updated my iPhone4S to iOS6 and my Wifi turns off in sleep mode. Only when I press the home button the wifi is ON again and starts receiving notifications.

I read somewhere that with iOS 6 Apple has decided to get rid of Persistent Wi-Fi, which they put in iOS 4 & 5. This is what kept the Wi-Fi active even when the device was locked. I believe Apple decided to get rid of it because of complaints about the Wi-Fi draining battery. I am also very annoyed with this because I use iMessage alot.

I had the same problem, my ipod touch kept turning Wifi off in sleep mode after I installed iOS6. Looks to me that I have solved the problem by doing an Erase All Content and Settings (on your iPod go to Settings > General > Reset). After this reset, I used my newest iCloud backup (I did a full backup before erasing). This has solved the Wifi problem in my ipod. After re-installing all my apps after the rest, I turned my ipod off for a few hours. It has been 2 days since I did this and its working fine (as it did with iOS 5). I hope this helps all of you.

Did you have the Wi-Fi on or off when you clicked the Erase All Content button? Or do you know if it matters if it was on or off?

Hello, yes I did the Erase all with the Wifi On and connected to external power through the power cord. I also did a backup on iCloud prior to Erase All and I used this backup when re-installing everything after the reset. I hope this helps

I did a restore last night and set it up as a new iPod but that didn't fix it either. This was a problem I have had since iOS 6 Beta 1 and it should have been fixed with later releases of the beta's.

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Okay thank you. I will try that and let you know how it worked for me.

I just noticed this issue this morning before i left for work, Last night before i went to bed i left the WiFi on....of course my ipad went to sleep on its own and when i woke up this morning i turned on my ipad and no wifi. Shortly after unlocking the iPAD the WiFi came back on. Updated my iPad to IOS 6 on Saturday (surprised i hadnt noticed this before now), and i updated my phone one day last week. This issue is happening on both my phone and my iPad, its happening at home at work and at the Panera Bread where i get my bagel. However, my wifes original ipad with IOS 4 is not having any issues. Her ipad went to sleep with wifi on and woke up with wifi on.

So this morning i called Apple support and explained my situation to them just like i explained it above. I got a very helpful support person named "L", after listening to my explination he put my on hold for about 5mins. When he came back he said there were a couple solutions that we could try, BUT Also, he said that apple was aware of the issue and IS WORKING ON A FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM. He said he didnt know about this problem until now, but  that he tested this out on his phone and he was having the same problem He said that about 45 secons after sleep the iphone is dissconnecting from WIFI. He tested this by pinging the phones ip address while it was asleep.

So just to confirm i reiterated to L, this is a problem with IOS 6 and is affecting phones and ipads....to which he said yes. And i asked apple is working on a fix to which he said yes. He said they should roll out an updates prolly withing a week or so.

Very frustrating but atleast they are aware and they are working on a fix.

Did they say an like iOS update or a silent patch that will install itself when I connect to Wi-Fi without me having to do anything?

Thank you very much Shawn0 for the information. As long as they know about the issue and are working on a fix then I am happy!

Thanks again for the info.

Ryan

@jridg103 - I did ask him that question, i asked him how we would reveive the update. He said that sometimes apple will release a silet patch/update in the backgroud that we would not see. However, he also said that since there are a lot of bugs to address...apple may choose to realease a full update which would be something like version 6.1.1.1 that we would have to updated ourselves, the impression that i got was that a full update would be more likley. However, he said that either is possible and he wasnt sure what they would choose to do. Formulating my own opinion, since IOS 6 has been out since 9/19 and a lot of these problems still persist i would think they are working on a full update to try and adress all issues in one shot.

@Rewards 5 - Agreed, its definatley NOT OKAY that we have to deal with this kind of stuff....but there is a slight bit of comfort in knowing that THEY KNOW and are working on a fix.

Finally the answer I was looking for. Glad that Apple is aware of this. I already restore my 4s using itunes but it didnt fix the problem.

From my testing, if I sleep without plug in power button the wifi will disconnect. Not so of the phone is plugged in.

@Naturals006 - I havent tried that with plugging my phone into the power and letting it sleep. I assume that i would have the same results as you though. I do know that when i updated my iPAD i did so by connecting it to the charger because it was almost dead and then selecting to updated to iOS 6. I did this at night before i went to bed and just let it do its thing. When i woke up the next morning iOS6 was installed and i believe the wifi was connected.

I would still encourage people to contact Apple support no matter what your problem is, they seem very helpful with iOS6 issues even if your warranty is up (both my iphone and ipad are OUT of warranty).

Okay thanks for the information! I'll be looking for an update